A motor vehicle transmission typically uses interconnected gear elements and clutches to couple rotatable transmission input and output members, and to thereby establish a desired transmission speed ratio. Clutches may be configured as fluid-actuated devices having a series of spaced friction plates. A hydraulic piston is actuated so as to compress the friction plates together and thereby transfer torque across the engaged clutch, or to stop rotation of a side of the clutch and any interconnected gear elements or nodes. Plate clutches are typically controlled with a variable rate of slip, such that the state of the clutch can range from fully-applied to fully-released and anywhere in between.
In some transmissions, a binary clutch assembly having, e.g., a selectable one-way clutch, a freewheeling element, or a dog clutch, is used alone or in conjunction with the rotating and/or braking plate clutches noted above to establish one or more gear states. Unlike conventional plate clutches, a binary clutch assembly, as the name indicates, has just two possible states: fully-applied and fully-released. When fully-applied, the binary clutch assembly is prevented from rotating in both rotational directions. When in the fully-released state, the binary clutch assembly freewheels in one rotational direction, and thus one side of the binary clutch effectively slips with respect to the other side.